Baseball: No hits? No problem as Bloomington South stuns North in 7th inning

For veteran head coaches such as Bloomington North's Richard Hurt and South's Phil Kluesner somewhere in their memory banks they can probably find a game similar to what they just witnessed. That didn't make it any less stunning for either one or their players.

North seemed to have everything well in hand, up 3-0 as senior lefty Cole Grupenhoff tossed six innings of no-hit ball with nine strikeouts. South sent only a couple balls out of the infield.

But it takes seven full innings of focus and effort to subdue these Panthers, who have a reputation lately of spoiling things with last-minute rallies. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. Give them a base in this case, and they took seven more.

"I have total confidence in them," South coach Phil Kluesner said. "We were within striking distance. That was important that we kept a couple of those innings we limited the damage. That allowed us to stay in the game.

"They were frustrated but they didn't quit."

In a weird way, it almost seemed inevitable as five walks and a catcher's interference tied the game before a wild pitch sent pinch runner Reid Walker scooting home to cap a stunning 4-3 Conference Indiana victory. South (10-2, 1-0) never did get a hit. But the Panthers never pressed or panicked, either.

"I've never won a game like that," said South senior catcher Ben Ridner, who plays linebacker in the fall. "I think in general, we've got really tough guys with really tough mindsets and that wins a lot of games, no matter what sport it is.

"If we can stay focused, stay engaged in the game I think the sky's the limit for our team."

Winning a game like this might be proof of that, but also proof there's more work to do.

"Really fortunate," Kluesner said. "We've been kind of like that all year. It's a weird ending. I can't off the top of my head. But usually not without a hit, though. I can't recollect that. That's kind of weird."

"Unfortunately, yes," North coach Richard Hurt said. "I've been around a long time, so it's just really tough. I told the kids afterwards, that's a real dagger. It's tough."

Grupenhoff shining for Cougars

Grupenhoff started to tire, Hurt said, as the longest outing in two years or more, came to an end after 100 pitches. The senior, who will play at Kalamazoo College next year, hadn't pitched much as a sophomore and not at all last year while an arm injury healed up.

Grupenhoff, coming off five shutout innings against Terre Haute North, never allowed South more than one base runner until the seventh.

"So we were very excited when we found out he was going to pitch for us this year," Hurt said. "Obviously, he very talented, great athlete. But we've got to finish.

"I'd like to see the off-speed a little bit better but he did get it over enough. He's got enough fastball to get it by guys, so he's got several pitches. He'll continue to get better as we got through the year."

"Cole pitched an outstanding game, obviously got tired at the end. Our two best strike throwers, just didn't throw strikes. Tough way to lose, but we'll try to look at the whole game and we did some good things."

Seventh inning to remember (or forget)

Luke Thompson and Jake Arnett drew his fourth and fifth walks to open the seventh.

"(Grupenhoff) threw well," Ridner said. "You just have to eliminate pitches. Once we figured out how to get a few pitches out, I think we started to see more balls from him and we started to be able to take a couple pitches until we got a strike. And with any team, once you get into the bullpen, it's a completely different game, for sure."

Hurt turned to senior Graham Freund, who walked Luke Arnett on four pitches to load the bases, then went to a 2-0 count on Ridner. Hurt then called on his closer, Drew Wagner, who eventually walked Ridner to make it 3-1, then struck out Keagan Palileo looking.

On Wagner's first pitch to Caleb Oliver, catcher Will Eads' was clipped by Oliver's bat on the swing. Catcher's interference was called and Jake Arnett came home. 3-2.

No. 9 hitter Sam Giles then worked a full-count walk to tie it and even before the cheers from the home fans died down, Wagner unleashed a high pitch that ticked off Eads' mitt and to the backstop and Walker had no problems beating the throw home.

Good and bad

OK, yeah, Kluesner is taking the win, as ugly as it was at the plate for his team, also seeing strong relief pitching and solid defense.

The Panthers got a terrific effort from sophomore Xavier Hemingway, who took over in the fourth with a runner at second. He gave up a single and a sacrifice fly, then shut the door as North ran itself out of two innings.

"He did a heck of a job," Kluesner said. "He's been kind of doing that all year. He's good at locating several pitches."

The next batter popped up and Thompson made a terrific play reaching over the top of the fence by the bullpen to make the catch. Then turned and fired home to easily nail Grupenhoff as he tried to score from third.

"That one's on me," Hurt said. "Caden's on deck, so I should have held him."

North had eight hits, two by Caden McCoy, Eads and Grupenhoff. Freund tripled and Chris Barnett had a sacrifice fly as the Cougars scored single runs in the first, third and fourth innings.

The Cougars also had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fifth for the second out on a grounder to third. They also had a runner thrown out trying to steal second in the sixth inning. But those are the chances the Cougars are taking.

"We've struggled offensively, there's no doubt about that," Hurt said. "We've got to move the ball somehow. We're trying to survive on three runs, which is hard to do. We did a lot of things tonight to try to be aggressive. That's basically all we can do right now until our bats come alive."

Klein called up

It left little for North to celebrate save for the fact former Cougar Will Klein, a member of the Kansas City Royals organization who was assigned to AAA Omaha when the season started, got his first callup to the majors Thursday.

In nine appearances out of the bullpen for the Storm Chasers, he had three saves and an 0.00 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 11 innings of work.

Moving forward

South is 10-2? Yes, 10-2 and still on track for a CI title again. That kind of early success wasn't necessarily in the cards when the season began. Not that anyone doubted they could.

"I don't think it's too crazy because we had a lot of pieces returning, a lot of bats returning," Ridner said. "And with the key pieces we have back defensively, me Luke, (Jake) Arnett, (Lucas) Waldon, we just had to build around us.

"The pitchers were there last year, we saw glimpses of the freshmen, now sophomores. They're great pitchers and great kids who come to work every day."

More: Softball: Here's how a freshman helped South top North in Bloomington rivalry game

More: Bloomington area sports notes: Wrestling rule changes, MCCSC physical night and more

The Panthers have to complete a 6-6 game at Terre Haute South. The 27th brings a trip to well-regarded Castle, followed by two more CI games next week.

Ahead is a tough back-to-back home series with No. 1 Center Grove and No. 7 Columbus North with the CI title possibly on the line.

North will have to get right in a hurry with 3A No. 4 Bishop Chatard at home Friday and No. 1 Center Grove on May 1.

"Baseball challenges you," Hurt said. "Socks you in the nose every now and then, so what are you going to do? We've got a game tomorrow, two on Saturday. You've got to get up and you've got to go play."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington North no-hits South and still loses. Here how it happened